1. The celebration of the two thousandth anniversary of the
incarnation of the Word was for many believers a time of conversion and
of opening to God’s plan for the human person created in his image.
The grace of the Jubilee incited in the People of God an urgency to
proclaim the mystery of Jesus Christ “yesterday, today and forever”
with the testimony of their lives and, in Him, the truth about the human
person. Young people, moreover, expressed a surprising interest with regard to the explicit
announcement of Jesus. Consecrated persons, for their part, grasped the strong call to live in a state of
conversion for accomplishing their specific mission in the Church: to be
witnesses of Christ, epiphany of the love of God in the world, recognizable signs of reconciled
humanity.[i]

a
prophetic task

2. The complex cultural situations of the beginning of the 21st century are a further
appeal to a responsibility to live the present as kairós,
a favourable time, so that the Gospel may effectively reach the men and
women of today. Consecrated persons feel the importance of the prophetic
task entrusted to them by the Church in these momentous but fascinating
times,[ii]“recalling and serving the divine plan for humanity, as it is
announced in Scripture and as also emerges from the attentive reading of
the signs of God's providential action in history.”[iii]
This task requires the courage of testimony and the patience of
dialogue; it is a duty before the cultural tendencies that threaten the
dignity of human life, especially in the crucial moments of its
beginning and its ending, the harmony of creation, and the existence of
peoples and peace.

the reason for these reflections

3. Within the context of the profound changes that assail the world of
education and schools, the Congregation for Catholic Education wishes to
share some reflections, offer some guidelines and incite some further
investigations of the educational mission and the presence of
consecrated persons in schools in general, not only Catholic schools. This document is mainly addressed to members of institutes of
consecrated life and of societies of apostolic life, as well as to those
who, involved in the educational mission of the Church, have assumed the
evangelical counsels in other forms.

as a continuation of previous ecclesial guidelines

4. These considerations are within the lines of the
Second Vatican Council, the Magisterium of the universal Church and the
documents of the continental Synods regarding evangelisation, the
consecrated life and education, especially scholastic education. In
recent years, this Congregation has offered guidelines on Catholic
schools[iv] and on lay people who bear witness to faith in schools.[v]
As a
continuation of the document on lay people, it now intends reflecting on
the specific contribution of consecrated persons to the educational
mission in schools in the light of the Apostolic Exhortation Vita
consecrata and of the more recent developments of pastoral care for
culture.[vi] This is a result of its conviction that: “a faith that does not
become culture is a faith that has not been fully received, not entirely
thought through, not loyally lived.”[vii]

the cultural mediation of the faith today

5. The necessity for a cultural mediation of the faith is an
invitation for consecrated persons to consider the meaning of their
presence in schools. The altered circumstances in which they operate, in
environments that are often laicised and in reduced numbers in
educational communities, make it necessary to clearly express their
specific contribution in cooperation with the other vocations present in
schools. A time emerges in which to process answers to the fundamental
questions of the young generations and to present a clear cultural
proposal that clarifies the type of person and society to which it is
desired to educate, and the reference to the anthropological vision
inspired by the values of the gospel, in a respectful and constructive
dialogue with the other concepts of life.

a renewed commitment in the educational sphere

6. The challenges of modern life give new motivations to the mission
of consecrated persons, called to live the evangelic councils and bring
the humanism of the beatitudes to the field of education and schools. This is not at all foreign to the mandate of the Church to
announce salvation to all.[viii]“At the same time, however, we are painfully aware of certain
difficulties which induce your Communities to abandon the school sector.
The dearth of religious vocations, estrangement from the teaching
apostolate, the attraction of alternative forms of apostolate seemingly
more gratifying.”[ix] Far from discouraging, these difficulties can be a source of
purification and characterize a time of grace and salvation (cf. 2 Cor
6:2). They invite discernment and an attitude of constant renewal.
The Holy Spirit, moreover, guides us to rediscover the charism, the
roots and the modalities for our presence in schools, concentrating on
the essential: the importance of the testimony of Christ, the poor,
humble and chaste one; the priority of the person and of relationships
based on love; the search for truth; the synthesis between faith, life
and culture and the valid proposal of a view of man that respects
God’s plan.

Evangelise by educating

It thus becomes clear that consecrated persons in schools, in communion
with the Bishops, carry out an ecclesial mission that is vitally
important inasmuch as while they educate they are also evangelising.
This mission requires a commitment of holiness, generosity and skilled
educational professionalism so that the truth about the person as
revealed by Jesus may enlighten the growth of the young generations and
of the entire community. This Dicastery feels therefore that it is opportune to call attention to the
profile of consecrated persons and to reflect on some well-known aspects
of their educational mission in schools today.

7. “The consecrated life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of
Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the
Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus - the chaste, poor and
obedient one - are made constantly 'visible' in the midst of the world and the eyes of the faithful are
directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in
history, even as it awaits its full realization in heaven.”[x]
The aim of the consecrated life is “conformity to the Lord Jesus in his
total self-giving,”[xi]
so that every consecrated person is called to assume “his mind and his
way of life,”[xii] his way of thinking and of acting, of being and of loving.

Identity of consecrated life

8. The direct reference to Christ and
the intimate nature of a gift for the Church and the world,[xiii]are elements that define the identity and scope of the consecrated life.
In them the consecrated life finds itself, its point of departure, God
and his love, and its point of arrival, the human community and its
requirements. It is through these elements that every religious family
traces its own physiognomy, from its spirituality to its apostolate,
from its style of community life to its ascetic plan, to the sharing and
participation in the richness of its own charisms.

At Christ’s school to have his mind

9. The consecrated life can be compared in some ways to a school,
that every consecrated person is called to attend for his whole
life. In fact, having the mind of the Son means to attend his school daily, to learn from him to
have a heart that is meek and humble, courageous and passionate. It means allowing oneself to be educated
by Christ, the eternal Word of the Father and, to be drawn to him, the
heart and centre of the world, choosing
his same form of life.

Allowing oneself to be educated and formed by Christ,
to be similar to him

10. The life of a consecrated person is therefore an educational-formative rise and fall that educates to the truth of
life and forms it to the freedom of the gift of oneself, according to
the model of the Easter of the Lord. Every moment of consecrated life forms part of this rise and
fall, in its double educational and formative aspect. A consecrated
person does in fact gradually learn to have the mind of the Son in him
and to reveal it in a life that is increasingly similar to his, both at individual and community level,
in initial and permanent formation. Thus the vows are an expression of the lifestyle chosen by Jesus
on this earth that was essential, chaste and completely dedicated to the
Father. Prayer becomes a continuation on earth of the praise of the
Son to the Father for the salvation of all mankind. Community life is the demonstration that, in the name of
the Lord, stronger bonds than those that come from flesh and blood can
be tied. These are bonds that are able to overcome what can divide. The apostolate is the impassioned announcement of he by whom we
have been conquered.

gift for everyone

11. The school of the mind of the Son gradually opens the consecrated life to
the urgency for testimony, so that the gift may reach everyone. In fact, Christ “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”
(Phil 2:6), he kept nothing for himself, but shared his wealth of being Son with all men. That is
why, even when the testimony contests some elements of the local
culture, consecrated persons try to enter into a dialogue in order to
share the wealth which they bring. This means that the testimony must be distinct and unequivocal,
clear and comprehensible for everyone, in order to demonstrate that
religious consecration has much to say to every culture inasmuch as it
helps to reveal the truth about human beings.

12. Among the challenges that the consecrated life faces today is that of
trying to demonstrate the anthropological value ofconsecration. It is a question of demonstrating that a poor, chaste and obedient life
enhances intimate human dignity; that everyone
is called, in a different way, according to his or her vocation, to be
poor, obedient and chaste. The evangelical counsels do, in fact, transfigure authentically human values
and desires, but they also relativise the human "by pointing to God
as the absolute good."[xiv] The consecrated life, moreover, must be able to show that the
evangelical message possesses considerable importance for living in
today’s world and is also comprehensible for those who live in a
competitive society such as ours. Lastly, the consecrated life must try
to testify that holiness is the highest humanizing proposal of man and
of history; it is a project that everyone on earth can make his or her
own.[xv]

Charismatic circularity

13. Consecrated persons communicate the richness of their specific vocation
to the extent that they live their consecration commitments to the full. On the other hand, such a communication also arouses in the
receiver a capacity for an enriching response through the participation
of his personal gift and his specific vocation. This “confrontation-sharing” with the Church and with the
world is of great importance for the vitality of the various religious
charisms and for their interpretation in line with the modern context
and their respective spiritual roots. It is the principle of charismatic
circularity, as a result of which the charism returns
in a sort of way to where it was born, but without simply repeating
itself. In this way, the consecrated life itself is renewed, in the listening and interpretation
of the signs of the times and in the creative and active fidelity of its
origins.

Constructive dialogue in the past and in the present

14. The validity of this principle is confirmed by history; the consecrated life
has always woven a constructive dialogue with local culture, sometimes
questioning and provoking it, at others defending and preserving it, but
in any case allowing it to stimulate and interrogate, in a confrontation
that was in some cases dialectic, but always fruitful. It is important that such a confrontation continues even in
these times of renewal for the consecrated life and of cultural
disorientation that risks frustrating the human heart’s insuppressible
need for truth.

15. The study of the ecclesial situation as a mystery of communion has led
the Church, under the action of the Spirit, to increasingly understand
itself as the pilgrim people of God and, at the same time as the body of
Christ the members of which are in a mutual relationship with each other
and with the head.

At
a pastoral level, "to make the Church the
home and the school of communion"[xvi]is the great challenge that we must know how to face, at the beginning
of the new millennium, in order to be faithful to God’s plan and to
the world’s deep expectations. It is first and foremost necessary to promote a spirituality
of communion capable of becoming the educational principle in the
various environments in which the human person is formed. This spirituality is
learned by making our hearts ponder on the mystery of the Trinity, whose
light is reflected in the face of every person, and welcomed and
appreciated as a gift.

Consecrated
persons in the Church-communion

16. Demands for communion have offered consecrated persons the chance to
rediscover the mutual relationship with the other vocations in the
people of God. In the Church they are called, in a special way, to reveal that participation
in the Trinitarian communion can change human relations creating a new
kind of solidarity. By professing to live for God and of God, consecrated persons do, in fact, undertake to
preach the power of the peacemaking action of grace that overcomes the
disruptive dynamisms present in the human heart.

with the dynamism of the specific charism

17. Whatever the specific charism that characterizes them, consecrated
persons are called, through their vocations, to be experts of communion, to promote human and spiritual bonds that
promote the mutual exchange of gifts between all the members of the
people of God. The acknowledgement of the many forms of
vocations in the Church gives a new meaning to the presence of
consecrated persons in the field of scholastic education. For them a school is a place of mission, where the prophetic role
conferred by baptism and lived according to the requirements of the
radicalism typical of the evangelical counsels is fulfilled. The gift of special consecration that they have received will
lead them to recognizing in schools and in the educational commitment
the fruitful furrow in which the Kingdom of God can grow and bear fruit.

A consecrated person educates....

18. This commitment responds perfectly to the nature and to the scope of the
consecrated life itself and is carried out according to that double educational
and formative model that accompanies the growth of the individual
consecrated person. Through schools, men and women religious educate, help young people to grasp
their own identity and to reveal those authentic needs and desires that
inhabit everyone’s heart, but which often remain unknown and
underestimated: thirst for authenticity and honesty, for love and
fidelity, for truth and consistency, for happiness and fullness of life. Desires which in the final analysis converge in the supreme human
desire: to see the face of God.

.... forms

19. The second modality is that regarding formation. A school forms
when it offers a precise proposal for fulfilling those desires,
preventing them from being deformed, or only partially or weakly
achieved. With the testimony of their lives consecrated persons, who are at the school of
the Lord, propose that form of existence which is inspired by Christ, so
that even a young person may live the freedom of being a child of God
and may experiment the true joy and authentic fulfilment that spring
from the project of the Father. Consecrated persons have a providential
mission in schools, in the modern context, where the educational
proposals seem to be increasingly poorer and man’s aspirations seem to
be increasingly unanswered!

in schools, educational communities

20. There is no need for consecrated persons to reserve exclusive tasks for
themselves in educational communities. The specificity of the consecrated life lies in its being a sign,
a memory and prophecy of the values of the Gospel. Its characteristic is "to bring to bear on the world of
education their radical witness to the values of the Kingdom,"[xvii]
in cooperation with the laity called to express, in the sign of
secularity, the realism of the Incarnation of God in our midst, “the
intimate dependency of earthly situations on God in Christ.”[xviii]

by developing the specificity of all the
vocations present in the educational community

21. The different vocations operate for the growth of the body of Christ and
of his mission in the world. The commitment to evangelical testimony according to the typical form of
every vocation gives rise to a dynamism of mutual help to fully live
membership of the mystery of Christ and of the Church in its many
dimensions; a stimulus for each one to discover the evangelical richness
of his or her own vocation in a gratitude-filled comparison with others.

By avoiding both confrontation and homologation, the reciprocity of
vocations seems to be a particularly fertile prospect for enriching the
ecclesial value of educational communities. In them the various vocations carry out a service for achieving a
culture of communion. They are correlative, different and mutual paths that converge to bring to
fulfillment the charism of charisms: love.

22. The awareness that they are living in a time that is full of challenges
and new possibilities urges consecrated persons, involved in the
educational mission in schools, to make good use of the gift received by
accounting for the hope that animates them. Fruit of the faith in the
God of history, hope is based on the word and on the life of Jesus, who
lived in the world, without being of
the world. He asks the same attitude from those who follow him: to live and work in history,
without however allowing oneself to be imprisoned by it. Hope demands insertion in the world, but also separation;
it requires prophecy and sometimes involves following or withdrawing in
order to educate the children of God to freedom in a context of
influences that lead to new forms of slavery.

Discernment and contemplative gaze

23. This way of being in history requires a deep capacity for discernment. Born from daily listening to the Word of God, this facilitates
the interpreting events and prepares for becoming, as if to say, a critical
conscience. The deeper and more authentic this commitment, the more
likely it will be to grasp the action of the Spirit in the life of
people and in the events of history. Such a capacity finds its foundation in contemplation and in prayer, which teach us to see persons and
things from God’s viewpoint. This is the contrary of a superficial glance and of an activism that is
incapable of reflecting on the important and the essential. When there
is no contemplation and prayer – and consecrated persons are not
exempt from this risk – passion for the announcement of the Gospel is
also lacking as is the capacity to fight for the life and salvation of
mankind.

In schools for educating to silence and to
meeting God

24. By living their vocations with generosity and eagerness, consecrated
persons bring to schools their experience of a relationship with God,
based on prayer, the Eucharist, the sacrament of Reconciliation and the
spirituality of communion that characterizes the life of religious
communities. The evangelical position that results facilitates
discernment and the formation of a critical sense, a fundamental and
necessary aspect of the educational process. Whatever their specific task, the presence of consecrated persons
in schools infects the contemplative glance by educating to a silence that leads to listening
to God, to paying attention to others, to the situation that surrounds
us, to creation. Furthermore, by aiming at the essential, consecrated persons provoke the need for
authentic encounters, they renew the capacity to be amazed and to take
care of the other, rediscovered like a brother.

for
living the Gospel to the full

25. Because of their role, consecrated persons are "a living memorial of Jesus' way of living and acting as the
Incarnate Word in relation to the Father and in relation to the
brethren."[xix] The first and fundamental contribution to the educational mission
in schools by consecrated persons is the evangelical completeness of
their lives. This way of shaping their lives, based on their generous response to God’s call,
becomes an invitation to all the members of the educational community to
make their lives a response to God, according to their various states of
life.

and testifying a chaste, poor and obedient life

26. In this perspective, consecrated persons testify that the chastity
of their hearts, bodies, lives is the full and strong expression of
a total love for God that renders a person free, full of deep joy and
ready for their mission. Thus consecrated persons contribute to guiding young men and women towards
the full development of their capacity to love and a complete maturation
of their personalities. This is a very important testimony in a culture that increasingly tends to
trivialize human love and close itself to life. In a society where everything tends to be free, consecrated
persons, through their freely chosen poverty,
take on a simple and essentiallifestyle,
promoting a correct relationship with things and trusting in Divine
Providence. Freedom from things makes them unreservedly ready for an educational service to the
young that becomes a sign of the availability of God’s love in a world
where materialism and having seem to prevail over being. Finally, by living obedience,
they remind everyone of the lordship of the only God and, against
the temptation of dominion, they indicate a choice of faith that
counters forms of individualism and self-sufficiency.

and expressing their
donation

27. Just as Jesus did for his disciples, so consecrated persons live their
donation for the benefit of the receivers of their mission: students, in
the first place, but also their parents and other educators. This encourages them to live prayer and their daily response to
their following Christ to become an increasingly more suitable
instrument for the work that God achieves through them.

The call to give themselves fully to schools, in deep and true freedom,
means that consecrated men and women become a living testimony to the
Lord who offers himself for everyone. This excess of gratuitousness and love makes their donation
assessable over and above any type of usefulness.[xx]

looking at Mary

28. Consecrated persons find in Mary the model to inspire them in their
relations with God and in living human history. Mary is the icon of prophetic hope because of her capacity to
welcome and meditate at length on the Word in her heart, of interpreting
history according to God’s plan, of contemplating God present and
working in time. In her eyes we see the wisdom that unites in harmony the ecstasy of her
meeting with God and the greatest critical realism with regard to the
world. The Magnificat is the prophecy par excellence
of the Virgin. It always sounds new in the spirit of a consecrated person, as a constant praise
to the Lord who bends down to the least and to the poor to give them
life and mercy.

29. A profile of consecrated persons clearly shows how their educational
commitment in schools is suited to the nature of the consecrated life. In fact "thanks to
their experience of the particular gifts of the Spirit, their careful
listening to the Word, their constant practice of discernment and their
rich heritage of pedagogical traditions amassed since the establishment
of their Institutes…consecrated persons give life to educational
undertakings"[xxi]in the educational field. This requires hand the promotion within the consecrated life, on the one, of
a "renewed cultural commitment which seeks to raise the level of
personal preparation,[xxii]
and on the other of a constant conversion to follow Jesus, the
way, the truth and the life (cf. Jn 14:6). It is an uncomfortable and tiring road that does however make
it possible to take up the challenges of the present time and undertake
the educational mission entrusted to the Church. While aware that it cannot be exhaustive, the Congregation for
Catholic Education, intends pausing to consider just some elements of
this mission. In particular it wishes to reflect on three specific contributions of the presence of
consecrated persons to scholastic education: first of all the link of
education to evangelisation; then formation to “vertical”
relationism, that is to the opening to God and lastly formation to
“horizontal” relationism, that is to say to welcoming the other and
to living together.

30. “To fulfil the mandate she has received from her divine founder of proclaiming the
mystery of salvation to all men and of restoring all things in Christ,
Holy Mother the Church must be concerned with the whole of men’s life,
even the secular part of it insofar as it has a bearing on his heavenly
calling.”[xxiii] Both in Catholic and in other types of schools, the educational
commitment for consecrated persons is a vocation and choice of life, a
path to holiness, a demand for justice and solidarity especially towards
the poorest young people, threatened by various forms of deviancy and
risk. By devoting themselves to the educational mission in schools,
consecrated persons contribute to making the bread of culture reach
those in most need of it. They see in culture a fundamental condition for people to completely fulfil
themselves, achieve a level of life that conforms to their dignity and
open themselves to encounter with Christ and the Gospel. Such a commitment is founded on a patrimony of pedagogical
wisdom that makes it possible to confirm the value of education as a
force that is able to help the maturing of a person, to draw him to the
faith and to respond to the challenges of such a complex society as that
which we have today.

31. The process of globalisation characterizes the
horizon of the new century. This is a complex phenomenon in its dynamics. It has positive effects, such as the possibility for peoples and
cultures to meet, but also negative aspects, which risk producing
further disparities, injustices and marginalisation. The rapidity and complexity of the changes produced by
globalisation are also reflected in schools, which risk being exploited
by the demands of the productive-economic structures, or by ideological
prejudices and political calculations that obscure their educational
function. This situation incites schools to strongly reassert their specific role of stimulus to
reflection and critical aspiration. Because of their vocation consecrated persons undertake to
promote the dignity of the human person, cooperating with schools so
that they may become places of overall education, evangelisation and
learning of a vital dialogue between persons of different cultures,
religions and social backgrounds.[xxiv]

new technologies

32. The growing development and diffusion of new technologies provide means
and instruments that were unconceivable up to just a few years ago. However, they also give rise to questions concerning the future
of human development. The vastness and depth of technological
innovations influence the processes of access to knowledge,
socialization, relations with nature and they foreshadow radical, not
always positive, changes in huge sectors of the life of mankind. Consecrated persons cannot shirk wondering about the impact that
these technologies will have on people, on means of communication, on
the future of society.

schools’ task

33. Within the context of these changes, schools have a meaningful role to
play in the formation of the personalities of the new generations. The responsible use of the new technologies, especially of
internet, demands an appropriate ethical formation.[xxv] Together with those working in schools, consecrated persons feel
the need to understand the processes, languages, opportunities and
challenges of the new technologies, but above all to become communication educators, so that these technologies may be used
with discernment and wisdom.[xxvi]

…for the future of man

34. Among the challenges of modern society that schools have to face are threats to life and to families, genetic manipulations, growing
pollution, plundering of natural resources, the unsolved drama of the
underdevelopment and poverty that crush entire populations of the south
of the world. These are vital questions for everyone, which need to be faced with extensive and
responsible vision, promoting a concept of life that respects the
dignity of man and of creation. This means forming persons who are able
to dominate and transform processes and instruments in a sense that is
humanizing and filled with solidarity. This concern is shared by the whole international community, that
is active in assuring that national educational programmes contribute to
developing training initiatives in this regard.[xxvii]

35. The clarification of the anthropological foundation of the
formative proposal of schools is an increasingly more unavoidable
urgency in our complex societies.

The
human person is defined by his rationality,
that is by his intelligent and free nature, and by his relational
nature, that is by his relationship with other persons. Living with others involves both the level of the being of the
human person – man/woman – and the ethical level of his acting. The foundation of human ethos
is in being the image and likeness of God, the Trinity of persons in
communion. The existence of a person appears therefore as a call to the duty to exist for one
another.

36. The commitment of a spirituality of communion for the 21st
century is the expression of a concept of the human person, created in
the image of God. This view enlightens the mystery of man and woman. The human person experiences his humanity to the extent that he
is able to participate in the humanity of the other, the bearer of a
unique and unrepeatable plan. This is a plan that can only be carried out within the context of
the relation and dialogue with the you in a dimension of reciprocity and opening to God. This kind of reciprocity is at the basis of the gift of self and
of closeness as an opening in solidarity with every other person.
This closeness has its truest root in the mystery of Christ, the Word
Incarnate, who wished to become close to man.

within the dimension of a plenary humanism

37. Faced with ideological pluralism and the proliferation of
“knowledge”, consecrated men and women therefore offer the
contribution of a vision of a plenary humanism,[xxviii]
open to God, who loves everyone and invites them to become increasingly
more “conformed to the image of his Son” (cf. Rm 8:29). This divine plan is the heart of Christian humanism: “Christ…fully reveals man to man
himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”[xxix] To confirm the greatness of the human creature does not mean to
ignore his fragility: the image of God reflected in persons is in fact
deformed by sin. The illusion of freeing oneself from all dependency, even from God, always
ends up in new forms of slavery, violence and suppression. This is confirmed by the experience of each human being, by the
history of blood shed in the name of ideologies and regimes that wished
to construct a newhumanity without God.[xxx]
On the contrary, in order to be authentic, freedom must measure itself
according to the truth of the person, the fullness of which is revealed
in Christ, and lead to a liberation from all that denies his dignity
preventing him from achieving his own good and that of others.

Witnesses of the truth about the human person

38. Consecrated persons undertake to be witnesses in schools to the truth
about persons and to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. With their lives they confirm that faith enlightens the whole
field of education by raising and strengthening human values. Catholic
schools especially have a priority: that of “bringing forth within what is learnt in school a Christian
vision of the world, of life, of culture and of history.”[xxxi]

with cultural mediation

39. Hence the importance of reasserting, in a pedagogical context that tends
to put it in the background, the humanistic and spiritual dimension of
knowledge and of the various school subjects. Through study and research a person contributes to perfecting
himself and his humanity. Study becomes the path for a personal encounter with the truth, a “place”
of encounter with God himself. Taken this way, knowledge can help to motivate existence, to begin the search
for God, it can be a great experience of freedom for truth, placing
itself in the service of the maturation and promotion of humanity.[xxxii]
Such a commitment demands of consecrated persons an accurate analysis of
the quality of their educational proposal, and also constant attention
to their cultural and professional formation.

and commitment in the field of non-formal education

40. Another, equally important, field of evangelisation and
humanization is non-formal education, that is of those who have been
unable to have access to normal schooling. Consecrated persons feel that they should be present and promote innovative projects
in such contexts. In these situations poorer young people should be given the chance of a suitable
formation that considers their moral, spiritual and religious
development and is able to promote socialization and overcome
discrimination. This is no novelty, inasmuch as working classes have
always been within the sphere of various religious families. It is a case of confirming today with suitable means and plans an
attention that has never been lacking.

41. The educational mission is carried out in a spirit of cooperation
between various subjects – students, parents, teachers, non-teaching
personnel and the school management – who form the educational
community. It can create an environment for living in which the values are mediated by authentic
interpersonal relations between the various members of which it is
composed. Its highest aim is the complete and comprehensive education of the person. In this respect, consecrated persons can offer a decisive
contribution, in the light of their experience of communion that
characterizes their community lives. In fact, by committing themselves to live and communicate the
spirituality of communion in the school community, through a dialogue
that is constructive and able to harmonize differences, they build an
environment that is rooted in the evangelical values of truth and love. Consecrated persons are thus leaven that is able to create
relations of increasingly deep communion, that are in themselves
educational. They promote solidarity, mutual enhancement and joint responsibility in the
educational plan, and, above all, they give an explicit Christian testimony, through communication of the
experience of God and of the evangelical message, even sharing the
awareness of being instruments of God and bearers of a charism in the
service of all men.

within the sphere of the Church communion

42. The task of communicating the spirituality of communion within the
school community derives from being part of the Church communion. This means that consecrated persons involved in the educational
mission must be integrated, starting from their charism, in the pastoral
activity of the local Church. They, in fact, carry out an ecclesial ministry in the service of a concrete
community and in communion with the Diocesan Ordinary. The common educational mission entrusted to them by the Church
does, however, require cooperation and greater synergy between the
various religious families. Apart from offering a more skilled educational service, this synergy offers
the chance for sharing charisms from which the entire Church will gain. For this reason the communion that consecrated persons are called
to experiment goes well beyond their own religious family or institute. Indeed, by opening themselves to communion with other forms of
consecration, consecrated persons can “rediscover their common Gospel
roots and together grasp the beauty of their own identity in the variety
of charisms with greater clarity.”[xxxiii]

43. The educational community expresses the variety and beauty of the
various vocations and the fruitfulness at educational and pedagogical
level that this contributes to the life of scholastic institutions. The commitment to promote the relational dimension of the
person and the care taken in establishing authentic educational
relationships with young people are undoubtedly aspects that the
presence of consecrated persons can facilitate in schools, considered as
microcosms in which oases are created where the bases are laid for
living responsibly in the macrocosm of society. It is not, however, strange to observe, even in schools, the
progressive deterioration of interpersonal relations, due to the
functionalisation of roles, haste, fatigue and other factors that create
conflicting situations. To organize schools like gymnasiums where one exercises to establish
positive relationships between the various members and to search for
peaceful solutions to the conflicts is a fundamental objective not just
for the life of the educational community, but also for the construction
of a society of peace and harmony.

educating to reciprocity

44. Usually in schools there are boys and girls, as well as men and women
with tasks of teaching or administration. Consideration of the
single-dual dimension of the human person implies the need to educate to
mutual acknowledgement, in respect and acceptance of differences. The experience of man/woman reciprocity may appear paradigmatic
in the positive management of other differences, including ethnic and
religious ones. It does, in fact, develop and encourage positive attitudes, such as an awareness
that every person can give and receive, a willingness to welcome the
other, a capacity for a serene dialogue and a chance to purify and
clarify one’s own experience while seeking to communicate it and
compare it with the other.

through enhancing relations

45. In a relationship of reciprocity, interaction can be asymmetric from the
point of view of roles, as it is necessarily in the educational
relationship, but not from that of the dignity and uniqueness of every
human person. Learning is facilitated when, without undue straining with regard to roles,
educational interaction is at a level that fully recognizes the equality
of the dignity of every human person. In this way it is possible to form personalities capable of
having their own view of life and to agree with their choice. The involvement of families and teaching staff creates a climate of trust and respect that
promotes the development of the capacity for dialogue and peaceful
coexistence in the search for whatever favours the common good.

46. Due to their experience of community life, consecrated persons are in a
most favourable position for cooperating to make the educational plan of
the school promote the creation of a true community. In particular they propose an alternative model of
coexistence to that of a standardized or individualistic society. In actual fact consecrated persons undertake, together with their
lay colleagues, to assure that schools are structured as places of
encounter, listening, communication, where students experience values in
an essential way. They help, in a directed way, to guide pedagogical choices to promote
overcoming individualistic self-promotion, solidarity instead of
competition, assisting the weak instead of marginalisation, responsible
participation instead of indifference.

aware
of the family’s task

47. The family comes first in being responsible for the education of
its children. Consecrated persons appreciate the presence of parents in
the educational community and try to establish a true relation of
reciprocity with them. Participating bodies, personal meetings and other initiatives are aimed at rendering
increasingly more active the insertion of parents in the life of
institutions and for making them aware of the educational task. Acknowledgement of this task is more necessary today than it was
in the past, due to the many difficulties that families now experience. When God’s original plan for families is overshadowed in
peoples’ minds, society receives incalculable damage and the right of
children to live in an environment of fully human love is infringed. On
the contrary, when a family reflects God’s plan, it becomes a workshop
where love and true solidarity are experienced.[xxxiv]

Consecrated persons announce this truth, which does not regard just believers, but
is the patrimony of all mankind, inscribed in the heart of man. The chance of contact with the families of the children and young
people is a favourable occasion for examining with them meaningful
questions regarding life, human love and the nature of families and for
agreeing to the proposed vision instead of other often dominating
visions.

and of the importance of brotherhood as a
prophetic sign

48. By testifying to Christ and living their typical life of communion,
consecrated men and women offer the whole educational community the
prophetic sign of brotherhood. Community life, when woven with deep relationships “is itself prophetic in a society which, sometimes without realising it, has
a profound yearning for a brotherhood which knows no borders.”[xxxv]
This conviction becomes visible in the commitment to make the life of
the community a place of growth of persons and of mutual aid in the
search and fulfilment of the common mission. In this regard it is important that the sign of brotherhood can
be perceived with transparency in every moment of the life of the
scholastic community.

in network with other educational agencies

49. The educational community achieves its scopes in synergy with other
educational institutions present in the country.

By coordinating with other educational agencies and in the more extensive
communications network a school stimulates the process of personal,
professional and social growth of its students, by offering a number of
proposals in integrated form. Above all, it forms a most important aid for escaping various conditionings,
especially of the media, so helping young people to pass from simple and passive
consumers to critical interlocutors, capable of positively influencing
public opinion and even the quality of information.

50. When involved in the serious search for truth through the contribution of the
different subjects, the life of the educational community is constantly
urged to mature in reflection, to go beyond the acquisitions achieved
and to question at the existential level.

With their presence, consecrated persons offer in this context the specific
contribution of their identity and vocation. Even if not always consciously, young people wish to find in them
the testimony of a life lived as the answer to a call, as a journey
towards God, as the search for the signs through which He makes himself
present. They expect to see persons who invite them to seriously question themselves, and to
discover the deepest meaning of human existence and of history.

51. An encounter with God is always a personal event, an answer that is by
its nature, a person’s free act in response to the gift of faith. Schools, even Catholic schools, do not demand adherence to the
faith, however, they can prepare for it. Through the educational plan it is possible to create the
conditions for a person to develop a gift for searching and to be guided
in discovering the mystery of his being and of the reality that
surrounds him, until he reaches the threshold of the faith.

To those who then decide to cross this threshold the necessary means
are offered for continuing to deepen their experience of faith through
prayer, the sacraments, the encounter with Christ in the Word, in the
Eucharist, in events and persons.[xxxvi]

educating to freedom

52. An essential dimension of the path of searching is education to freedom,
typical of every school loyal to its task. Education to freedom is a humanizing action, because it aims at
the full development of personality. In fact, education itself must be seen as the acquisition, growth
and possession of freedom. It is a matter of educating each student to free him/herself from the
conditionings that prevent him/her from fully living as a person, to
form him/herself into a strong and responsible personality, capable of
making free and consistent choices.[xxxvii]

preparing the ground for the choice of faith

Educating truly free people is in itself already guiding them to the
faith. The search for meaning favours the development of the religious dimension of a person
as ground in which the Christian choice can mature and the gift of faith
can develop. It is ever more frequently observed that in schools, especially in western
societies, the religious dimension of a person has become a lost
link, not only in the typically educational sphere of schools, but also in the more extensive
formative process that began in the family.

Yet, without it the formative process, as a whole, is strongly
affected, making any search for God difficult. The immediate, the superficial, the accessory,
prefabricated solutions, deviations towards magic and surrogates of
mystery thus tend to grasp the interest of young people and leave no
room for opening to the transcendent.

Even teachers, who call themselves non-believers, today feel the
urgency to recover the religious dimension of education, necessary for
forming personalities able to manage the powerful conditionings under
way in society and to ethically guide the new discoveries of science and
technology.

with a style of interpellant education

53.
By living the evangelical counsels, consecrated persons form an
effective invitation to question themselves about God and the mystery of
life. Such a question that requires a style of education that is
able to stimulate fundamental questions on the origin and meaning of
life passes through the search for the whys
more than for the hows.For this reason, it is necessary to check how the contents of
the various subjects are proposed in order that students may develop
such questions and search for suitable replies. Moreover, children
and young people should be encouraged to flee from the obvious and from
the trivial, especially within the sphere of choices of life, of the
family, of human love. This
style is translated into a methodology of study and research that trains
for reflection and discernment. It
takes the form of a strategy that cultivates in the person, from his
earliest years, an inner life as the place to listen to the voice of
God, cultivate the meaning of the sacred, decide to follow values,
mature the recognition of one’s limits and of sin, feel the growth of
the responsibility for every human being.

54. The teaching of religion assumes a specific role in this context.
Consecrated persons, together with other educators, but with a greater
responsibility, are often called to ensure specialized paths of
religious education, depending on the different school situations: in
some schools the majority of the pupils are Christians, in others
different religious followings predominate, or there are agnostic or
atheist choices.

cultural proposal offered to everyone

Their’s is the duty to emphasise the value of the teaching of religion within
the timetable of the institution and within the cultural programme. Even while acknowledging that the teaching of religion in a
Catholic school has a different function from that which it has in other
schools, its scope is still that of opening to the understanding of the
historical experience of Christianity, of guiding to knowledge of Jesus
Christ and the study of his Gospel. In this sense, it can be described as a cultural proposal that
can be offered to everyone over and above their personal choices of
faith. In many contexts, Cristianity already it forms the spiritual horizon
of the native culture.

teaching of religion in Catholic schools

In
Catholic schools, teaching of religion must help students to arrive at a
personal position in religious matters that is consistent and respectful
of the positions of others, so contributing to their growth and to a
more complete understanding of reality. It is important that the whole educational community, especially
in Catholic schools, recognizes the value and role of the teaching of
religion and contributes to its enhancement by the students. By using
words that are suited to mediating the religious message, the religion
teacher is called to stimulate the pupils to study the great questions
concerning the meaning of life, the significance of reality and a
responsible commitment to transform it in the light of the evangelical
values and modern culture.

other formative opportunities

The community of a Catholic school offers not only teaching of religion but
also other opportunities, other moments and ways for educating to a
harmony between faith and culture, faith and life.[xxxviii]

55. Together with other Christian educators, consecrated persons know how to
grasp and enhance the vocational dimension that is intrinsic to the
educational process. Life is, in fact, a gift that is accomplished in the free response to a
special call, to be discovered in the concrete circumstances of each
day. Care for the vocational dimension guides the person to interpret his existence in the
light of God’s plan.

The absence or scarce attention to the vocational dimension not only
deprives young people of the assistance to which they have a right in
the important discernment on the fundamental choices of their lives, but
it also impoverishes society and the Church, both of which are in need
of the presence of people able to devote themselves on a stable basis to
the service of God, their brothers and the common good.

56. The promotion of a new
vocational culture is a fundamental component of the new evangelisation. Through it, one must “find courage and zest for the big
questions, those related to one’s future.”[xxxix]
These are questions that should be reawakened even through personalized
educational processes by means of which one is gradually led to discover
life as a gift of God and as a task. These processes can form a real itinerary of vocational
maturation, that leads to a specific vocation.

Consecrated persons especially are called to promote the culture
of vocations in schools. They are a sign for all Christian people not only of a specific vocation, but
also of vocational dynamism as a form of life, thus eloquently
representing the decision of those who wish to live with attention to
God’s call.

sharing their educational charism

57. In the modern situation, the educational mission in schools is
increasingly shared with the laity. "Whereas at times in the recent past, collaboration came
about as a means of supplementing the decline of consecrated persons
necessary to carry out activities, now it is growing out of the need to
share responsibility not only in the carrying out of the Institute’s
works but especially in the hope of sharing specific aspects and moments
of the spirituality and mission of the Institute.”[xl] Consecrated persons must therefore transmit the educational
charism that animates them and promote the formation of those who feel
that they are called to the same mission. To discharge this responsibility they must be careful not to get
involved exclusively in academic-administrative tasks and to not be
taken over by activism. What they must do is favour attention to the richness of their charism and
try to develop it in response to the new social-cultural situations.

becoming privileged interlocutors in the search
for God

58. In educational communities consecrated persons can promote the
achievement of a mentality that is inspired by the evangelical values in
a style that is typical of their charism. This in itself is already an educational service in a vocational
key. Young people, in fact, and often also the other members of the
educational community, more or less consciously expect to find in
consecrated persons privileged interlocutors in the search for God. For this type of service, the most specific of the identity of
consecrated persons, there are no age limits that would justify
considering oneself retired. Even when they have to retire from professional activity, they can always
continue to be available for young people and adults, as experts of life
according to the Spirit, men and women educators in the sphere of faith.

The presence of consecrated men and women in schools is thus a proposal of
evangelical spirituality, a reference point for the members of the
educational community in their itinerary of faith and of Christian
maturation.

The vocational dimension of the teaching
profession

59. The quality of the teachers is fundamental in creating an educational
environment that is purposeful and fertile. It is for this reason that the institutions of consecrated life
and religious communities, especially when in charge of Catholic
schools, propose formation itineraries for teachers. It is opportune in these to emphasize the vocational dimension of
the teaching profession in order to make the teachers aware that they
are participating in the educational and sanctifying mission of the
Church.[xli]Consecrated persons can reveal, to those who so desire, the richness of
the spirituality that characterizes them and of the charism of their
Institute, encouraging them to live them in the educational ministry
according to the lay identity and in forms that are suitable and
accessible to young people.

60. A school’s community dimension is inseparable from priority attention
to the person, the focus of the scholastic educational programme. “Culture must correspond
to the human person, and overcome the temptation to a knowledge
which yields to pragmatism or which loses itself in the endless
meanderings of erudition. Such knowledge is incapable of giving meaning
to life…knowledge enlightened by faith, far from abandoning areas of
daily life, invests them with all the strength of hope and prophecy. The
humanism which we desire advocates a vision of society centred on the
human person and his inalienable rights, on the values of justice and
peace, on a correct relationship between individuals, society and the
State, on the logic of solidarity and subsidiarity. It is a humanism
capable of giving a soul to economic progress itself, so that it may be
directed to the promotion of each individual and of the whole person.”[xlii]

characterizing concrete choices in that sense

61. Consecrated persons must be careful to safeguard the priority of the
person in their educational programme. For this they must cooperate in the concrete choices that are
made regarding the general school programme and its formative proposal. Each pupil must be considered as an individual, bearing in mind
his family environment, his personal history, his skills and his
interests. In a climate of mutual trust, consecrated men and women discover and cultivate each
person’s talents and help young people to become responsible for their
own formation and to cooperate in that of their companions. This requires the total dedication and unselfishness of those who
live the educational service as a mission. This dedication and
unselfishness contribute to characterizing the school environment as a
vital environment in which intellectual growth is harmonised with
spiritual, religious, emotional and social growth.

62. With the typical sensitivity of their formation, consecrated
persons offer personalised accompanying through attentive listening and
dialogue. They are, in fact, convinced that “education is a thing of the heart”[xliii]
and that, consequently, an authentic formative process can only be
initiated through a personal relationship.

reawakening the desire for internal liberation

63. Every human being feels that he is internally oppressed by tendencies to
evil, even when he flaunts limitless freedom. Consecrated men and women strive to reawaken in young
people the desire for an internal liberation. This is a condition for undertaking the Christian journey that is
directed towards the new life of the evangelical beatitudes. The
evangelical view will allow young people to take an critical attitude
towards consumerism and hedonism that have wormed their way, like the
tare in the wheat, into the culture and way of life of vast areas of
humanity.

that is conversion of the heart

Fully aware that all human values find their full accomplishment
and their unity in Christ, consecrated persons explicitly represent the
maternal care of the Church for the complete growth of the young people
of our time, communicating the conviction that there can be no true
liberation if there is no conversion of the heart.[xliv]

64. The sensitivity of consecrated persons, so attentive to the need to develop
the single-dual dimension of the human person in obedience to God’s
original plan (cf. Gen 2:18), can contribute to integrating differences in the
educational endeavour to make maximum use of them and overcoming
homologations and stereotypes. History testifies to the commitment of
consecrated men and women in favour of women. Even today consecrated persons feel they have a duty to
appreciate women in the field of education. In various parts of the world Catholic schools and numerous
religious families are active in assuring that women are guaranteed
access to education without any discrimination and that they can give
their specific contribution to the good of the entire community. Everyone is aware of the contribution of women in favour of life
and of the humanisation of culture,[xlv] their readiness to care for people and to rebuild the social
tissue that has often been broken and torn by tension and hate. Many initiatives of solidarity, even among peoples at war, are
born from that female genius that
promotes sensitivity for all human beings in all circumstances.[xlvi]
In this context consecrated women are called in a very special way to
be, through their dedication lived in fullness and joy,
a sign of God’s tender love towards the human race.[xlvii] The
presence and appreciation of women is therefore essential for preparing
a culture that really does place at its centre people, the search for
the peaceful settlement of conflicts, unity in diversity, assistance and
solidarity.

65. In today’s complex society, schools are called to provide young
generations with the elements necessary for developing an intercultural
vision. Consecrated persons involved in education, who often belong to
institutes that are spread throughout the world, are an expression of
“multi-cultural and International communities, called to 'witness to
the sense of communion among peoples, races and cultures' . . . where mutual knowledge, respect, esteem and enrichment are being
experienced.”[xlviii] For this reason they can easily consider cultural differences as
a richness and propose accessible paths of encounter and dialogue. This attitude is a precious contribution for true intercultural
education, something that is made increasingly urgent by the
considerable phenomenon of migration. The itinerary to be followed in educational communities involves
passing from tolerance of the multicultural situation to welcome and a
search for reasons for mutual understanding to intercultural dialogue,
which leads to acknowledging the values and limits of every culture.

66. From a Christian viewpoint, intercultural education is essentially based
on the relational model that is open to reciprocity. In the same way as happens with people, cultures also
develop through the typical dynamisms of dialogue and communion. “Dialogue between cultures emerges as an intrinsic demand of
human nature itself, as well as of culture. It is dialogue which
protects the distinctiveness of cultures as historical and creative
expressions of the underlying unity of the human family, and which
sustains understanding and communion between them. The notion of
communion, which has its source in Christian revelation and finds its
sublime prototype in the Triune God (cf. Jn
17:11, 21), never implies a dull uniformity or enforced homogenisation
or assimilation; rather it expresses the convergence of a multiform
variety, and is therefore a sign of richness and a promise of growth.”[xlix]

67. The intercultural prospective involves a change of paradigm at the
pedagogical level. From the integration of differences one passes to a
search for their coexistence. This is a model that is neither simple nor easily implemented. In the past, diversity between cultures was often a source of
misunderstandings and conflicts; even today, in various parts of the
world, we see the arrogant establishment of some cultures over others. No less dangerous is the tendency to homologation of cultures to
models of the western world inspired by forms of radical individualism
and a practically atheist concept of life.

Commitment to seek the ethical foundations of
the various cultures

68. Schools must question themselves about the fundamental ethical trends
that characterize the cultural experiences of a particular community. “Cultures, like the people who give rise to them, are marked by
the 'mystery of evil' at work in human history (cf. 1 Th
2:7), and they too are in need of purification and salvation. The
authenticity of each human culture, the soundness of its underlying ethos,
and hence the validity of its moral bearings, can be measured to an
extent by its commitment to the human cause and by its capacity to
promote human dignity at every level and in every circumstance.”[l]

In his speech to the members of the 50th General Assembly of the United
Nations Organization, the Pope underlined the fundamental communion
between peoples, observing that the various cultures are in actual fact
just different ways of dealing with the question of the meaning of
personal existence. In fact, every culture is an attempt to reflect on the
mystery of the world and of man, a way of expressing the transcendent
dimension of human life. Seen this way, difference, rather than being a threat, can become, through
respectful dialogue, a source of deep understanding of the mystery of
human existence.[li]

69. The presence of consecrated persons in an educational community concurs
in perfecting the sensitivity of everyone to the poverty that still
torments young people, families and entire peoples. This sensitivity can become a source of profound changes in an
evangelical sense, inducing a transformation of the logics of excellence
and superiority into those of service, of caring
for others and forming a heart that is open to solidarity.

The preferential option for the poor leads to avoiding all forms
of exclusion. Within the school there is often an educational plan that serves the more or less well-to-do social groups, while attention
for the most needy definitively takes second place. In many cases social, economic or political circumstances leave
no better alternative. This, however, must not mean the exclusion of a clear idea of the evangelical
criteria or of trying to apply it at a personal and community level and
within the scholastic institutions themselves.

70. When the preferential option for the poorest is at the centre of the
educational programme, the best resources and most qualified persons are
initially placed at the service of the least, without in this way
excluding those who have less difficulties and shortages. This is the meaning of evangelical inclusion, so distant from the
logic of the world. The Church does, in fact, mean to offer its educational service in
the first place to “those who are poor in the goods of this world
or who are deprived of the assistance and affection of a family or who
are strangers to the gift of Faith.”[lii] Unjust situations often make it difficult to implement this
choice. Sometimes, however, it is Catholic educational institutions themselves that have strayed
from such a preferential option, which characterized the beginnings of
the majority of institutes of consecrated life devoted to teaching.

This choice, typical of the consecrated life, should therefore be
cultivated from the time of initial formation, so that it is not
considered as reserved only for the most generous and courageous.

Identify situations of poverty

71. Following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, consecrated persons
should identify among their pupils the various poverty situations that
prevent the overall maturation of the person and marginalize him or her
from social life, by investigating their causes. Among these,
destitution occupies an undisputable place. It often brings with it the lack of a family and of health,
social maladjustment, loss of human dignity, impossibility of access to
culture and consequently a deep spiritual poverty. Becoming the voice of the
poor of the world is a challenge assumed by the Church, and all
Christians should do the same.[liii]
Due to their choices and their publicly professed commitment of a poor
personal and community lifestyle, consecrated persons are more strongly
sensitive to their duty to promote justice and solidarity in the
environment in which they are active.

72. Access to education especially for the poor[liv]
is a commitment assumed at different levels by Catholic educational
institutions. This requires
arranging educational activity to suit the least, no matter what the
social status of the pupils present in the scholastic institution. This involves, among other things, proposing the contents of the
social doctrine of the Church through educational projects and requires
checking the profile that the school foresees for its students. If a school listens to the poorest people and arranges itself to
suit them, it will be able to interpret the subjects at the service of
life, and avail of their contents in relation to the global growth of
people.

commitment in formal and non-formal education

73. By listening to the poor, consecrated persons know where to commit themselves even within the sphere of non-formal
education and how to bring the most underprivileged to have access to
instruction. Acquaintance with countries where schools are reserved for the few or encounter
serious difficulties in accomplishing their task could give rise in the
educational communities of the more developed countries to initiatives
of solidarity, among which twinning between classes or schools. The formative advantages would be great for everyone, especially
for the pupils of the more developed countries. They would learn what is essential in life and they would be
assisted in not following the cultural fashions induced by consumerism.

74. The defence of children’s rights is another particularly important
challenge. The exploitation of children, in different, often aberrant, forms, is among the most
disturbing aspects of our time. Consecrated persons involved in the educational mission have the inescapable duty to
devote themselves to the protection and promotion of children’s
rights. The concrete contributions that they can make both as individuals and as an
educational institution will probably be insufficient with respect to
the needs, but not useless, inasmuch as aimed at making known the roots
from which the abuses derive. Consecrated persons willingly unite their
efforts to those of other civil and ecclesial organizations and persons of good will,
to uphold the respect of human rights in for the good of everyone,
starting from the most weak and helpless.

willing even to give their lives

75. The preferential option for the poor requires living a personal and
community attitude of readiness to give one’s life where necessary. It might therefore be necessary to
leave perhaps even works of prestige which are no longer able to
implement suitable formative processes and consequently leave no room
for the characteristics of the consecrated life. In fact, “if a school is excellent as an academic institution,
but does not bear witness to authentic values, then both good pedagogy and a concern for pastoral care make it
obvious that renewal is called for.”[lv]

Consecrated persons are therefore called to check to see if, in their
educational activity, they are mainly pursuing academic prestige rather
than the human and Christian maturation of the young people; if they are
favouring competition rather than solidarity; if they are involved in
educating, together with the other members of the school community,
persons who are free, responsible and just
according to evangelical justice.

to the ends of the earth

76. Precisely because of their religious consecration, consecrated persons
are pre-eminently free to leave everything to go to preach the gospel
even to the ends of the earth.[lvi]For them, even in the educational field, the announcement “ad
gentes” of the Good News remains a priority. They are therefore
aware of the fundamental role of Catholic schools in mission countries. In many cases, in fact, schools are the only possibility for the
Church’s presence, in others they are a privileged place of
evangelising and humanising action, responsible both for the human and
cultural development of the poorest people. It is important in this
regard to consider the necessity of the participation of the educational
charism between the religious families of the countries of ancient
evangelisation and those born in mission territories, which inspire
them. In fact, “the older Institutes, many of which have been tested by the severest of
hardships, which they have accepted courageously down the centuries can
be enriched through dialogue and an exchange of gifts with the
foundations appearing in our own days.”[lvii]
Such sharing is also transferred into the field of formation of
consecrated persons, in sustaining new religious families and in
cooperation between various institutes.

77. The path to peace passes through justice. “Only in this way can we
ensure a peaceful future for our world and remove the root causes of
conflicts and wars: peace is the fruit of justice . . . a justice which
is not content to apportion to each his own, but one which aims at
creating conditions of equal opportunity among citizens, and therefore favouring those who, for
reasons of social status or education or health, risk being left behind
or being relegated to the lowest places in society, without possibility
of deliverance.”[lviii]

78. Awareness that education is the main road to peace is a fact shared by
the international community. The various projects launched by
international organizations for sensitising public opinion and
governments are a clear sign of this.[lix] Consecrated persons, witnesses of Christ, the Prince of Peace,
grasp the urgency of placing education for peace among the primary
objectives of their formative action offering their specific
contribution to encourage in the hearts of the pupils the desire to
become peacemakers. Wars in fact are born in the hearts of men and the
defences of peace must be built in the hearts of men. By enhancing the educational process, consecrated persons
undertake to excite attitudes of peace in the souls of the men of the
third millennium. This “is not only the absence of conflict but requires a positive, dynamic,
participatory process where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are
solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and co-operation.”[lx]

Consecrated persons cooperate in this undertaking with all men
and women of goodwill sharing with them the effort and urgency to always
seek new ways that are suited for an effective education that “has
widened possibilities for strengthening a culture of peace.”[lxi]

through the education to values

79. An effective education for peace involves preparing various levels of
programmes and strategies. Among other things, it is a matter of proposing to the pupils an education to
suitable values and attitudes for peacefully settling disputes in the
respect of human dignity; of organising activities, even extracurricular
ones such as sports and theatre that favour assimilating the values of
loyalty and respect of rules; of assuring equality of access to
education for women; of encouraging, when necessary, a review of
curricula, including textbooks.[lxii]

Education is also called to transmit to students an awareness of
their cultural roots and respect for other cultures. When
this is achieved with solid ethical reference points, education leads to
a realisation of the inherent limits in one’s own culture and in that
of others. At the same time, however, it emphasises a common inheritance of values to the
entire human race. In this way “education has a particular role to play in building a more united and peaceful world.
It can help to affirm that integral humanism, open to life's ethical and
religious dimension, which appreciates the importance of understanding
and showing esteem for other cultures and the spiritual values present
in them.”[lxiii]

80. As a result of the negative effects of
uncontrolled economic and cultural globalisation, responsible
participation in the life of the community at local, national and world
levels acquires increasing importance at the beginning of the third
millennium. This participation presupposes the realisation of the causes
of the phenomena that threaten the coexistence of people and of human
life itself. As with every realisation, this too finds in education, and in particular in schools,
fertile ground for its development. Thus a new and difficult task takes shape: educate to have active
and responsible citizens. The words of the Pope are enlightening in this regard:“promoting
the right to peace ensures respect for all other rights, since it
encourages the building of a society in which structures of power give
way to structures of cooperation, with a view to the common good.”[lxiv]
In this respect, consecrated persons can offer the sign of a responsible
brotherhood, living in communities in which “each member has a sense
of co-responsibility for the faithfulness of the others; each one
contributes to a serene climate of sharing life, of understanding, and
of mutual help.”[lxv]

81. The reflections proposed clearly indicate that the presence of
consecrated persons in the world of education is a prophetic choice.[lxvi]

The Synod on the consecrated life exhorts to assume with renewed
dedication the educational mission in all levels of schools,
universities and institutions of higher learning.[lxvii] The invitation to continue the itinerary begun by those who have
already offered a significant contribution to the educational mission of
the Church lies within the bounds of the fidelity to their original
charism: “because of their special consecration, their particular
experience of the gifts of the Spirit, their constant listening to the
Word of God, their practice of discernment, their rich heritage of
pedagogical traditions built up since the establishment of their
Institute, and their profound grasp of spiritual truth (cf. Ef
1:17), consecrated persons are able to be especially effective in
educational activities and to offer a specific contribution to the work
of other educators.”[lxviii]

82. In the dimension of ecclesial communion, there is a growing awareness in
every consecrated person of the great cultural and pedagogical wealth
that derives from sharing a common educational mission, even in the
specificity of the various ministries and charisms. It is a matter of
discovering and renewing an awareness of one’s own identity, finding
again the inspiring nucleuses of a skilled educational professionalism
to be rediscovered as a way of being that represents an authentic
vocation.

Starting afresh from Christ

The root of this renewed awareness is Christ. Consecrated persons working in schools must start from him to
find again the motivating source of their mission. Starting afresh from
Christ means contemplating his face, pausing at length with him in
prayer to then be able to show him to others. It is what the Church is called to accomplish at the beginning of
the new millennium, conscious that only faith can enter the mystery of
that face.[lxix] Starting again from Christ is, therefore, also for consecrated men and
women, starting afresh from faith nourished by the sacraments and
supported by a hope that does not fail: “I am with you always” (Mt
28:20).

in a renewed commitment

Encouraged by this hope, consecrated persons are called to revive their educational passion
living it in school communities as a testimony of encounter between
different vocations and between generations.

The task of teaching to live, discovering the deepest meaning of life and of
transcendence, to mutually interact with others, to love creation, to
think freely and critically, to find fulfilment in work, to plan the
future, in one word to be, demands
a new love of consecrated persons for educational and cultural
commitment in schools.

and living in a state of permanent formation

83. By allowing themselves to be transformed by the Spirit and living in a
state of permanent formation, consecrated men and women become able to
extend their horizons and understand the profound causes of events.[lxx] Permanent formation also becomes the key to understanding the
educational mission in schools and for carrying it out in a way that is
close to a reality that is so changeable and at the same time in need of
responsible, timely and prophetic intervention. The cultural study that
consecrated persons are called to cultivate for improving their
professionalism in the subjects for which they are responsible, or in
the administrative or management service, is a duty of justice, which
cannot be shirked.

Participation in the life of the universal and particular Church involves
demonstrating the bonds of communion and appreciating the directions of
the Magisterium, especially with regard to such matters as life, the
family, the issue of women, social justice, peace, ecumenism,
inter-religious dialogue. In the climate of modern pluralism, the Magisterium of the Church is the
voice of authority that interprets phenomena in the light of the Gospel.

Thanksgiving for the important and noble task

84. The Congregation for Catholic Education wishes to
conclude these reflections with sincere gratitude to all the consecrated
persons who work in the field of school education. While aware of the complexity and often of the difficulties
of their task, it wishes to underline the value of the noble educational service aimed at giving reasons for life and
hope to the new generations, through critically processed knowledge and
culture, on the basis of a concept of the person and of life inspired by
the evangelical values.

Every school and every place of non formal education can become a centre of a
greater network which, from the smallest village to the most complex
metropolis, wraps the world in hope. It is in education, in fact, that
the promise of a more human future and a more harmonious society lies.

No difficulty should remove consecrated men and women from schools and from
education in general, when the conviction of being called to bring the
Good News of the Kingdom of God to the poor and small is so deep and
vital. Modern difficulties and confusion, together with the new prospects that are appearing at the
dawn of the third millennium, are a strong reminder to pass one’s life
in educating the new generations to become bearers of a culture of
communion that may reach every people and every person. The main motive and, at the same time, the goal of the commitment
of every consecrated person, is to light and trim the lamp of faith of
the new generations, the “morning watchmen (cf. Is 21:11-12) at the dawn of the new millennium.”[lxxi]

The Holy Father, during the Audience granted to the undersigned
Prefect, approved this document and authorized its publication.

Rome, 28th October 2002, thirty-seventh anniversary of the
promulgation of the statement Gravissimum educationis of the Second Vatican Council.

[iv] Cf. Sacred
Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 19th
March 1977; cf. Congregation for
Catholic Education, The
Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 28th
December 1997.

[ix] Congregation
for Catholic Education, Circular
letter to the Reverend General Superiors and Presidents of Societies of
Apostolic Life responsible for Catholic Schools, 15th
October 1996, in Enchiridion Vaticanum, vol. 15, 837.

[xxxix]
Pontifical Work
for Ecclesiastical Vocations, New Vocations for a New Europe. Final document of the Congress of Vocations to the Priesthood and to
Consecrated life, Rome, 5th
-10th May 1997, n.13 b.

[xl] Congregation
for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life,
Starting Afresh from Christ, n.
31.